Originally posted by Matt G.:
Sorry, jgoo, but that's Portuguese, not Spanish. He said "6 years ago, I lived in Cascais, Portugal (near Lisbon) for 3 years." Anos in Portuguese means "years" (años in Spanish). Lots of Spanish and Portuguese words are very close in spelling and pronunciation, but there are enough significant differences to make it very difficult (if not impossible) for a speaker of one to have a conversation with a speaker of the other. (Did that make sense?)

But maybe as a student of "Spanish", you are aware that the Iberian peninsula supports at least five distinct languages, and many regional dialects. We've already seen Portuguese here. What you are studying is more technically "Castellano", the dialect of Castilla, the region of Madrid. Don't try to use "Spanish" in Barcelona (they prefer Catalan), Vitoria-Gasteiz (better learn Basque), or Santiago de Compostela (how about Galician?).

Why so many? Well, the whole idea of national languages (one country, one language) is a pretty modern development in the world. Most languages have little to do with national boundaries![/b]

Originally posted by Gary P.:
However, I have no clue where all the special symbols are but figured you'd work it out [/b]

Originally posted by jgoo:
but its the upside down punctuation marks that I really have trouble finding!!![/b]